Thread: TX:Catholic Cardinal Calls for Broad-Based Legalization

Cardinal calls for broad-based legalization plan

Church activists at summit take aim at U.S. policies

By ALLAN TURNER

Copyright 2008 Houston Chronicle
Nov. 17, 2008, 10:38PM

In arguments rich in biblical allusion, church and social activists Monday took aim at the nation's immigration policies — laws they contended split families, criminalize undocumented workers and undercut America's reverential self-image as a land of opportunity.

"There are 200 million migrants," Cardinal Daniel DiNardo of the Catholic Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston told those gathered for The Metropolitan Organization's Clergy Summit: Welcoming the Stranger and Immigration Reform. "War, famine, economic collapse drive them, and it's unstoppable. In our own country, 12 million undocumented people work and live in the shadows."

Borrowing language from a 2002 Catholic Conference of Bishops policy statement, DiNardo called for legalization of undocumented workers already in the country.

"Without some form of broad-based legalization," DiNardo said, "the problems will just fester and fester."

Janice Huie, resident bishop for the United Methodist Church's Texas Annual Conference, joined the call for granting legal status to undocumented workers. In May, she said, Texas Methodist leadership formally opposed job-site raids and criminalization of undocumented workers and their indefinite detention.

"We would support policies that point to the best of who we are," she said.

Huie and others reported an intensification of anti-immigrant feeling in the U.S. fueled by the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

"I am encountering hateful, stereotyped and racist anti-immigrant language that is almost acceptable in the mainstream," Huie said.

'RED MEAT ISSUE'
Rhetoric surrounding immigration issues has heated as talk radio programs exploit the issue, suggested Houston immigration lawyer, Charles Foster, chairman for Americans for Immigration Reform.

"They found this red meat issue bashing immigrants," he said.

Foster's group has launched a $20 million campaign to back immigration reform. Current immigration policies, whether they regard building border fences or regulating the number of legal entrants, often prove unworkable, he said.

"The annual quota for semi-skilled workers, as opposed to families or professionals is 5,000," he said. The nonprofit Pew Hispanic Center estimates 500,000 undocumented workers entered the U.S. annually from 2005-08.

Government efforts to dislodge undocumented workers also are ineffective, Foster said.

"If these workers risk their lives coming here," he said, "they're not going home. They're going further down the economic scale."

A warning on complacency
Although President-elect Barack Obama has pledged to speedily address immigration concerns, Foster warned those at Monday's conference not to become complacent. President George W. Bush, he noted, was a staunch supporter of failed efforts to reform immigration laws in 2006 and 2007.

"The problem was in the House," Ernesto Cortes Jr. said, alluding to the U.S. House of Representatives. "The mail they were getting was 100-1 against, and that's not going to go away."

Cortes, southwest regional director of Industrial Areas Foundation, a nonprofit group founded by the late Chicago activist Saul Alinksy, was the only non-church affiliated speaker.

Cortes urged his audience to "go boldly, move forward, but lovingly and attentively."

The key to building support for immigration reform, he said, is building "relationships of trust, to bond together."

"We need to create social learning networks ... not to persuade so much as understand," he said. "To do that, we need to learn the language of concern."

allan.turner@chron.com

Comments

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The key to building support for immigration reform, he said, is building "relationships of trust, to bond together."

As long as were on the side of law and the constituntion, We will NEVER build relationships of trust and bond together!!

They came here not the other way around!! They want common ground then accept our culture and our laws then were all good!

"The problem was in the House," Ernesto Cortes Jr. said, alluding to the U.S. House of Representatives. "The mail they were getting was 100-1 against, and that's not going to go away."

Damn skippy it was, and you're right we're not going to let up!

Originally Posted by nomas

"The problem was in the House," Ernesto Cortes Jr. said, alluding to the U.S. House of Representatives. "The mail they were getting was 100-1 against, and that's not going to go away."

Damn skippy it was, and you're right we're not going to let up!

If it was 100-1 then, it's probably going to be 200-1 now.

These clergy should be teaching people how to have faith and that no matter where they live, God will provide. Telling them to quit breaking the 10 Commandments of thou shalt not Lie, Steal, and Covet doesn't line their coffers does it?

Every illegal alien is sinning and is dishonest. They can not move around in America without bearing false witness. They can not work with out stealing an ID. They can not be in America with out first coveting it.

These men of God should be soul saving and not concerning themselves with politics.

Dixie

Like all the others is interfering in matters of government. He exemplifies one of thereasons I am an ex_catholic.
He is violating American laws. The church should lose tax exempt status.

So what exactly does DiNardo want to do? Let all 200 million migrants into the U S or just the Catholic ones?

While my family tree has a boat load of Catholic church leaders, I am also ex-Catholic. I believe I have done right against fellow man and this planet. And it has gotten to the point where I have to say I read and comprehend the lessons of the Bible, not have it spoon-fed to me with twists because of the personal political views of some priest or pastor.

I honestly thought the US Constitution said something about separation of church and state. The Catholic Church gets a tax exempt status in the US because of this. Why is it the Catholic Church is getting involved in US politics. This isn't Mexico where the Catholic Church runs the government. Perhaps letters should be sent to the IRS asking for them to investigate the Catholic Church.